New intifada

Palestinians are feeling abandoned and betrayed after Hillary Clinton's latest speech, responding to Israeli plans to build 1600 homes for Israelis in occupied East Jerusalem with talk of America's 'unshakable bonds' with Israel and their 'shared values'. Any hopes raised by Obama's election and his Cairo speech seem to have vanished into thin air.

This comes the day after Channel Four showed a heart-rending film about the children of Gaza, still living amid ruins, mourning lost family members (a boy of nine shot through the head, a beloved father), talking pathetically of growing up to be engineers though deprived even of proper schools since Israel won't allow the import of building materials for reconstruction.

These Gaza children spoke chillingly but understandably of revenge and of killing Jews, when the only Jews they have ever seen were spraying their homes and schools and hospitals with bullets and white phosphorus. Meanwhile the Israeli ' Defense' Force has been declaring prohibited areas around Bilin and Nilin and Beit Sahour to stop peaceful protests against the occupation, now in its 43rd year with no hope in sight.